


New Tricks

by penlex



Series: little cuts [3]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Fantastic Racism, Gen, Ice Powers, Insecurity, Internalized racism, Jotunn Loki (Marvel), Not Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Compliant, Post-Thor: Ragnarok (2017)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-30
Updated: 2018-12-30
Packaged: 2019-09-30 04:10:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,007
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17216741
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/penlex/pseuds/penlex
Summary: Loki's first instinct upon learning something new has always been to show Thor. Until now.





	New Tricks

Loki's first instinct upon learning something new has always been to show Thor. Until now.

He hadn't ever tried this before. He had thought about it once or twice during his time on the throne as Odin, but had always hastily dismissed himself. And this time. This time Loki hadn't thought about it first, which, in hindsight, is probably a large part of why he finally went through with it.

Ice covers his hand like a glove, the skin underneath the blue of the sky early in a clear night. Loki can feel the impenetrable cold of it, but somehow it doesn't feel unpleasant. He moves his fingers, and the ice moves with him easily instead of breaking. The smooth facets within catch the dim light from the lamp at his side.

Loki had felt something snap inside him when Odin had taken his last breath. At the time, caught up in all else that was happening - Thor's grief and anger, Hela's arrival - Loki had assumed the feeling to be a part of his own sense of loss, already more acute than expected.

And then on Sakaar, Loki was... well occupied.

Now, Loki assumes that sensation must have been the abrupt ending of a spell that Odin must have placed to help Loki keep his shape so consistently for so long.

The last dregs of Asgard float together in their stolen ship through open space, carefully toeing the thin line between hurrying and wasting fuel. The ship they stole from Grandmaster is a cargo vessel so they have plenty of space (none of it comfortable), but are lacking in supplies for sustaining life. They will have to trade on what little material things they have and on their good name, which may or may not be so good after all. Loki can see the anxiety weighing on Thor's shoulders. It brings back achy old memories; all those times in their past when Thor was the one suffering unaided, all those same times that Loki had mentally rewritten in his rage and then eventually had forgotten all together. He doesn't know how to help now any more than he had back then, and so usually he hides. Better that than make it worse.

And hiding is what Loki is doing right now. He's in one of the farthest removed cargo holds, one among a half dozen that haven't been haphazardly converted into sleeping quarters. Asgard had kept as close to each other as possible, even Loki himself, and the Sakaarans had followed that lead. The population of the ship crowds at the front-center and thins from there. This particular room is in the very back of the ship. The outdated lighting system flickers annoyingly, hence the lamp. It's filled with partially unpacked boxes of useless gadgetry. The boxes closest to Loki now have a delicate sheen of frost joining their layer of dust.

Loki grows the ice up his forearm, the blue of his skin coming through underneath like ink seeping through paper. He grows and sharpens the ice at the tips of his fingers into long deadly points and curls his hand like a claw.

What would Thor do, this time, if Loki showed him his new trick? Loki can't begin to guess. Or maybe he just won't, even in the relative safety of his own mind. Can't. Won't. He melts the ice back into his skin but leaves the color. He supposes it could be uglier.

There's a soft knock at the door of the cargo hold, and Thor's voice comes quietly (for Thor).

"Loki? Heimdall said you were back here."

With an inhale so sharp he nearly chokes on it, Loki hurriedly attempts to shift his skin back into an acceptable shade of Aesir pink, and then _does_ choke when his arm remains blue instead.

"Loki?" Thor repeats, sounding concerned. Loki looks around frantically for ideas or something to cover up with, but sees only the too-slowly melting frost up the metal wall behind him and clinging wetly to the boxes beside. If he can't even guess at what Thor will do, there's no way he yet wants to _know_. So Loki, too panicked to think or do anything else, vanishes his lamp and plunges himself into darkness. He swallows down the tightness in his throat, and crafts some annoyance to put into his voice.

"Yes, Thor, I'm here," he calls. "I was avoiding you, but please do come in."

Thor, of course, comes in. He picks his way slowly, and less than gracefully, over to where Loki is and lowers himself down next to him.

"What are you doing sitting in the dark, brother?" he asks softly. His shoulder is warm against Loki's through the minimal distance between them and Loki's thin shirt.

"Avoiding you," Loki mutters, knowing it's audible even to Thor how much his heart isn't in it. "Didn't you hear me?" Thor huffs. They sit in silence, expectant but companionable, for long moments. When Thor finally speaks again, he seems almost hesitant, staring down at his own hands in his lap.

"I learned something new today," he says, soft, quietly hurt. Loki's heart skips a beat. He can't smile at this, nor reach out a hand to comfort. He can't take back any of the hurts that he dealt Thor himself - not the ones he meant and not the ones he didn't either. He can't change the way he forgot and abandoned and misunderstood his brother, not any more than Thor can change the way he did too. Loki can't go to Thor when he has a nightmare, or a bright new idea for an adventure. He can't tell Thor about his new trick, can't pull one over on him like he used to on Tyr's training grounds. But here Thor is, and here is Loki, and they are not what they were but they are all that's left. So Loki turns to face his brother directly, one hand pink and one blue.

Loki says into the darkness, "Show me, brother."

**Author's Note:**

> Come chill with me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/penlex)!


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